Hello all, I didn't see any mention of these in the forum so thought I would let people know they exist. I had searched for remakes but it wasn't until I was looking for Civ4 mods that I actually found them. Both are mods for Civ 4 and I haven't played either.

Planetfall
https://www.moddb.com/mods/planetfall

Conflict on Chiron
https://www.moddb.com/mods/conflict-on-chiron/#7785945

Panetfall is made in English but unfortunately the author stopped development a number of years back so it is missing intended features that weren't completed such as Alien civs, more substantial diplomacy, and civ personality. Additionally, some features from SMAX were not included at all such as the workshop though it is pointed out that the workshop gave false choice in that most people built the same stuff regardless, while planetfall provides more genuine diversity.

Conflict on Chiron seems like it is still actively being developed. . . in German, but with English translation. It seems to incorporate features from other games and is less of a direct remake compared to 'planetfall'. Unfortunately the only active forum I can find is in German.

If anyone has experience playing these I'd personally welcome a review. Lots of material online talking about 'planetfall' but no reviews of 'conflict on chiron'.

Can't speak for the gameplay aspect of these mods since i haven't tried them.

Regarding visuals though, call me weird but i don't find Civ IV's engine to be a good candidate for remaking SMAC in it. From what i've seen in those screenshots, it's too colorful and "happy" to be SMAC; the whole atmosphere of SMAC is missing. Even the GUI design of SMAC lends to the whole atmosphere.

If someone wanted to modernize the visuals of SMAC, a modern GUI modification would suffice i think. Check out this for example: http://www.keeganchua.com/#/alpha-centauri-redux/